“We’re in negotiations with FLIP Burger out of Atlanta — they’re taking 3,500 feet,” said Kenneth Powers, the owner of Commercial Realty, adding prospects for the remaining 4,000 square feet of space to be leased include a hair salon and yoga maternity studio.

At 40th and Charlotte avenue, H.G. Hill Realty plans a mixed-used project that should include 330 residential units and 20,000 square feet of retail.

— Getahn Ward

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Design is underway for a residential project at the corner of 46th and Charlotte avenues that once housed a church, and city officials are optimistic about what the redevelopment would mean for the surrounding neighborhood.

4508 Charlotte Pike Partners, a partnership that includes local real estate investor Nick Spiva, owns the property that was once home to the former Charlotte Avenue Church of Christ. It was once eyed for a Rite Aid drug store, but that attempt to redevelop the site failed — due in part to a sluggish economy, as well as opposition from neighbors who didn’t want to see the church torn down.

An engineer with Nashville-based Barge Waggoner Sumner & Cannon Inc. recently met with the area’s Metro Councilman Jason Holleman about approvals needed for any project to move forward on that site.

“It’s unfortunate we lost the historic church,” Holleman said. “But what is currently proposed is exactly the kind of infill project that the neighborhood had hoped to see on that site, which is attractive and walkable and blends well with the remainder of the historic architecture along that corridor.”

Holleman considers that corner of 46th and Charlotte as an entryway to the Sylvan Park neighborhood. The site is adjacent to Richland Park.

Steve Swartz, who recently served as the president of the Sylvan Park Neighborhood Association, said Austin Ray, owner of M.L. Rose Craft Beer & Burgers and Spiva‘s partner in the entity that owns the site, told him a few months ago that the project being planned there was going to be mixed-used.

“The community is very much in favor of a development along Charlotte — they feel that’s the place it ought to go, but less tolerant of redevelopment within the community itself,” he said, adding that residents generally expect to see a mixed-use development on the site.

Christie Wilson, president of The Wilson Group and a Realtor active in the Sylvan Park area, said the site needs a strong project, such as a mixed-used development, that would serve as an anchor for that corner.

Spiva, whose 4508 Charlotte Pike Partners last year paid $1.8 million for the roughly 1.72 acres on 46th Avenue between Charlotte and Alabama avenues, didn’t return calls for comment. Ray declined to comment when reached several times in recent weeks.

For any project to go forward, Metro Council’s approval is required to abandon an easement that runs through the site. That easement has been on the property since the 1940s, primarily because there used to be an alley. “Once that’s resolved, they will move forward with development in the next few months,” Holleman said.

Gene King, technical services coordinator with Metro Water Services, said an engineer contacted him earlier this year about the project. The agency’s system services department has a request to verify if a public sewer main is still in existence at the site, he said.

“If it’s not, we can go through the process of abandoning the easement rights,” King said. “If it is, they can’t build on top of it. If they need to build in that area, then they need relocate that public sewer main.”